Alex Ooley (00:01) episode of the Forge of Freedom podcast. I'm your host Alex Uli and today we're joined by Jacob Paulson, the man behind many things, ⁓ most of which probably is ConcealedCarrie.com but also Mountain Man Medical and then the Guardian Conference which we're going to talk about here in a little more depth in just a few moments. to start out Jacob, you don't mind tell the audience a little bit about ConcealedCarrie.com, Mountain Man Medical and anything else that you've got. Jacob Paulsen (00:25) going on? Sure, so ConcealCARE.com is a news information and training brand, so we're best known for our articles, our blog, our social media, podcasts, those kinds of things. It's also an e-commerce site. You can go there and buy products from hundreds of different manufacturers. But then also our company owns a number of different product brands. So you mentioned Mount Medi-Cole, course, which is what it sounds like. We sell trauma-related emergency medical gear. We also have Ready Up Gear, is going to range accessories, Barrel Block, which is a dry fire training product line. RangeTech Shot Timer is ours. feel like I'm missing something. Oh, KSG Army Holsters. I might be missing something else. So we've kind of invested in some diverse things in the firearm concealed carry community and marketplace. And of course, you mentioned the Guardian Conference, which is an annual event we put on. Alex Ooley (01:14) What I like about your series of companies, your portfolio of companies is that it's a fairly comprehensive sort of self-defense, concealed carry, Jacob Paulsen (01:26) Yes portfolio well I all these things come because we're gonna sell carry.com and you say well And we need to sell holsters because holsters are awesome, and we don't like some of the holsters are being made So what do we do? Oh, I got an idea So you know or it's like there's just not enough like a mountain medical This is a good example to use you know we looked at the marketplace We said hey, there's some companies out there making some really good test and proven You know TCCC recommended components turn it as chess seals where the thing is But in terms of like going out and buying a kit, everyone who's selling stuff is either selling everything from one brand, and we'd rather see something where we're grabbing the best components from each of them, and or it's just way overpriced. And so we started doing the research like now we can make this more affordable for the consumer marketplace. So yeah, that's how those things come to be is you look at the need, or you look at who our audience is at Consilkary.com, you say, well, how do we expand on this? How do we support our people better? Alex Ooley (02:21) One of the things that we talk about, my family and I have a trading business and we tell people all the time that the gun is a very small part of your responsible arms defense. And so many people spend an inordinate amount of time focusing on the gun itself, the equipment. And that's what I love about your series of products, your portfolio of products is that you focus on everything else except the gun. Basically the only thing you can't get from concealedcarry.com or one Jacob Paulsen (02:49) You're spot on. We don't sell ammo, we don't sell guns, don't sell knives, tasers, or pepper spray. So yeah, we're really focused on all the ancillary items. Alex Ooley (03:00) Yeah, including training, education, in fact I'm looking forward to it. I just signed up for your trauma first aid class seminar that you sell on Mount Med Medical. I'm looking forward to that. Jacob Paulsen (03:13) Well, just to clarify, for those listening, I mean, it's free. So it's a free online course. It's 13 total videos. It's about an hour and 45 minutes to go through the whole thing. But it's high-tech stuff. You start and it'll remember where you left off. And we have thousands of people a year go and take that online class. Right. And it's a way we can support the community. Alex Ooley (03:32) Yeah, and for those who ⁓ may not be familiar with Jacob, you were on the show last year at the annual meeting in Atlanta. I'll link to that in the show notes. Go back and listen to that. We talked about lessons learned from 1600 traffic stops and interactions with law enforcement. So I think ⁓ people would really enjoy that episode as well. Yeah, extremely interesting study that you conducted. So ⁓ definitely encourage people to go back and look at that. Now, speaking of training. Jacob Paulsen (03:39) I honored to be part of it. so good to get information there Alex Ooley (04:01) You've got something else in the works that you've been doing for a number of years now. The Guardian Conference. What's the idea behind the Guardian Conference? This is not just your run-of-the-mill training where you sign up with one person and you go for a weekend. This is much different product offering or service offering. Jacob Paulsen (04:21) Yeah, and I think there's a lot of different ways to think about it. So I'll try and kind of give you an idea where my head's at as kind of the founder of this event and the host of the event. But we're looking for a way to get people excited about training. So that's the first element is like if you're not pumped up, if you're not like, man, I'm really looking forward to this, then you don't pursue anything at all. So we said, what's an event we can put on where people get excited? So that's the first element here. ⁓ As trainers, we have to find ways to make the idea of ongoing education exciting. So that's one major element. Another one is you've to think of it like sometimes you need an immersive experience. The Guardian Conference does not provide an immersive experience. By immersive I mean you're taking one class on one topic from one instructor that's going to run two days, three days, whatever it is, and you're going deep on something. And you're really going to build a higher degree of mastery. You're going to get repetitions that allow you to start to actually develop skill above and beyond just knowing what you don't know. The Guardian Conference is the other type of approach here. I think it's just as valuable. It's just things in balance. But think of more like a buffet, where you're showing up to an event and we're saying, hey, ⁓ you're going to train with six, eight instructors. You're going to get four hours, maybe two hours in some cases, with the instructor. Not enough time to go deep on any topic, but you're sampling the food. You're at the buffet, you're getting a little of this, a little of that. And what's going to happen is a couple things. One, you are absolutely going to learn a ton of things you don't already know because even in four hours you're going to accomplish a lot on a gun range with an instructor but more importantly you're going to walk away and say hey I just was exposed to you know six to ten different teaching styles different topics different angles and now I know that that particular instructor like they speak to me I like their style I want to go take a class from them whereas this other instructor you know that really wasn't my jam I'm glad only had to sit on the range with them for four hours you know kind of thing so so it's you know I think there's a different approach to education and learning, it's not an immersive experience, it is a buffet of training. And I think that that has its place and until you've done it, I think you may not realize how impactful that can be. Alex Ooley (06:33) What was the motivation for starting the conference? Did you see a need in the trading Jacob Paulsen (06:39) industry. This actually really is an answer. Our mission as a company was not being fulfilled. That's the real easy answer. We were looking at like, hey when we started this company what do we set out to do and are we actually accomplishing that? And we looked at it and said no we're not. Like we're not actually delivering on the thing we said we would do. And our mission statement is probably not that different from the average firearm trainer in America. Like our mission is to empower ⁓ guardians and defenders to be prepared, trained and willing to defend themselves and their communities. And I suppose in some small part we're doing that here and there, but we looked at it said, I don't know that we're really delivering on that at scale. And we're national company, we're doing, We're doing revenue in the millions a year, So it's not a thing that we take lightly to have a year go by and say, hey, what's our focus on? Were we actually doing the thing that we claim to be in business to do? And at some point we said, yeah, I don't think we are. I think that way too much of our time and energy is actually spent saying, how do we sell more holsters? Or how do we do this or that? And so we took a step back and like, okay, how do we deliver on that then? Like, what does it look like for us to actually, like, be true to our mission, our deepest purpose, belief and passion and the answer was we need to put on an event. And this is an event where we need to able to invite our audience, people who look to us to deliver on this mission and that's the climax. The Guardian Conference is the ultimate delivery on the mission we set out to deliver. Alex Ooley (08:18) I appreciate, one of the things I like about the idea of the Guardian Conference is that you have a very diverse audience in terms of their ability, their knowledge, their skill. correct me if I'm wrong, but the Guardian Conference is meant to meet your audience wherever they are on that. Jacob Paulsen (08:29) 100 % Absolutely. This is really important because the Guardian Conference is not the only event in our industry, in our community that you could go to that's similar in concept to this. But I think that there's a couple things that are unique about the Guardian Conference and this is definitely one of them. From the start we've always said if you can go to the range, load your gun, put some holes on a piece of paper, unload the gun and go home, you're qualified to become the Guardian Conference. And we don't want to give the impression that it's just for newbies, that's not the case. We have plenty of legitimate, serious shooters at the Guardian Conference who are highly capable. But yes, we're looking to provide an experience where we can meet you where you are, and there's lots of different ways to execute that. Without getting into details, there's lots of tricks up our sleeve that allow us to provide an experience that's tailored to the individual. Alex Ooley (09:29) And you have ⁓ a wide range of instructors there, ⁓ Many nationally recognized instructors. Can you talk about who are the sorts of instructors that are going to be there? Jacob Paulsen (09:41) Yeah, I don't mean this to sound insulting to anybody who's listening, but basically when we, on year one, we decided to do this, we created a list of instructors, and I call this the A-list, and you're probably talking about 50 to maybe 75 instructors in the country who are A-level people. And it's not just about ability, ability matters, but to be clear and transparent, I'm a businessman, so these people also have to be notable enough that there's a desire in the marketplace to train with them. to be super capable, they have to be proven, tested entities, to know they're really good at teaching, they have to bring something unique so we can have, it doesn't help you to have five big celebrity instructors that are all teaching the same content, so they have to bring something unique to the table, but then they also have to have enough notoriety. to make the event effective to sell a ticket. That's the business side of this. So yeah, we identified 1575 people I consider on the A-list, and that's the list we asked to come teach at the conference. In fact, I'll give you this interesting insight. So far, no one has come to us and said, may I teach at your conference? And we've said yes. Every single person who teaches there, we went to them and sought them out and said, will you please come teach at the Guardian Conference? So these are the, this is the A-Team. Like these are seriously qualified, highly experienced people. I'll give you another just business insight here. You have to think of this from a liability standpoint. Like I could lose everything that is dear to me very quickly. and my kids could be on the street if something goes wrong at this event and I, if there's any hint at negligence or recklessness, right? You're an attorney, I'm speaking your language, and so what does that mean? Well it means that I have to bring instructors in that not only I trust, but they're capable of running a class of people without any micromanagement. yet they're just they could execute this at the most extreme high professional level possible so these these are the players like they are i don't teach this event right like they are these are the serious serious dude Alex Ooley (11:42) do that. Yeah and that's a huge component right of meeting people where they are is having experienced people who have talked to hundreds or thousands of people and know what it takes to reach a particular Jacob Paulsen (11:53) person. Bingo. And I think that they, I, I, okay maybe I'm speaking out of line, but I believe that my instructors who come to this event, it's, it's not the same every year, there's, there's turnover and different new people and things like that, and that's on purpose, but I believe that they love the Guardian Conference because they know they're gonna get the variety. They love having the person that steps on the line, you know, when I give them a class that's all kind of more beginner people. They love that just as much as they love in the afternoon when they get another class that's all a bunch of training junkies who do this because they love it. It's a whole different thing. They get to teach a different thing. So yes, for the instructor, they need to be capable of meeting people where they are. They need to be capable of maintaining a safe environment, but they also love it. You're a trainer like I am, and you just love... being able to see all the different types of shooters, you love being able to say, okay, this is this group, 10-4, like, then we're gonna go in this direction. This is how we're gonna move through this class. And it's Alex Ooley (12:51) Yeah, that variety really makes the job a lot more enjoyable. Jacob Paulsen (12:54) way more enjoyable and you feel like you're having an Alex Ooley (12:56) Yeah, yeah exactly so Obviously you can find out more you can get to information about the guardian conference from concealed carry comm But you've also got a dedicated website for the conference right? What's that website? Jacob Paulsen (13:08) MeridianConference.com, real easy. So this, traditionally it's the third weekend of September, which it is this year as well, September 18th, 19th, and 20th. We hosted Oklahoma City, so you know, potentially some travel involved, we some group rates at some local hotels, things like that. The Oklahoma City Gun Club has been an amazing host to us. You know, now this will be the sixth year we've held the event there. It's a beautiful facility, it's absolutely gorgeous, plenty of room, plenty of space. Alex Ooley (13:10) Perfect and when is the conference? Jacob Paulsen (13:36) meals are included, you're gonna come and we're gonna feed you. It really could not be easier to make the decision if you can pull it off on your schedule. Alex Ooley (13:46) What, I know on the website you've got a lot of information there about what sorts of classes are offered there, what equipment people need to bring. If you don't mind, could you give people a taste of what sort Jacob Paulsen (13:56) Sure, so I think probably one of the coolest things about our event is you really get to choose what you want to do. So if you say, hey I just want to come and I want to spend all three days of the event just on the range live fire putting lead into the dirt. You can do that for sure. But if you're smart, you won't do that. We will burn you out. You're going to want to some, take some opportunities to take classes that are not live fire. But within the live fire range, before I depart from that, we have a very handgun focused training, ⁓ more or less. But we have carbine classes, have shotgun classes as well. Zach Cox was teaching ⁓ some shotgun related, gauge related things last year. Tyler Tharp from Synergy Solutions was doing the long gun AR stuff last year as well. But you get a lot of handgun, you want to how to run a dot, there's classes focused on that. You want to focus on competition, we have some classes purely to help people who are into competitive shooting. So all around the gamut. But then outside of the shooting, because balance matters frankly, even though we all love the guns and the shiny pew pews, ⁓ have medical training is a big part of this event. If you haven't done some Stop the Bleed or even some more advanced things, we do some GCCC level type of medical training as well. combatives. This year Cecil Birch is going to be there doing some hand-to-hand stuff and you're not going to roll on the mats like you're not going to break or hurt or anything but some basic hand-to-hand stuff, ⁓ edge weapon defense or something like that. Very critical, very valuable. We have a vehicle tactics course that be there. was there last year and will be this year as well. We always bring in a legal team so if you want to take a couple hours, sit down, get a lecture about the law, I encourage you to do that. Don West. and some other of the team from CCW Safe is coming out this year. Don West was co-counsel on the George Zimmerman trial. He's a 30 plus year, know, tried and true defense ⁓ attorney out of Florida. man's a magician. I mean, he's truly a genius and the most soft-spoken, you know, kind man you could imagine. And he presents an amazing class. So we're really trying to provide some different opportunities that people can, you know, approach this and say, well, what do I want to get out of this? Alex Ooley (16:06) You mentioned that if somebody wants to come and put bullets in the dirt for the whole weekend they can do that. Sure. What if somebody wants to come and says I don't want to shoot at all? there enough opportunities to do that? Jacob Paulsen (16:15) that we've ever had that happen. But I think you probably could do it. think in any given class block we have classes going on that are not live fire. But so far we haven't got that request. Alex Ooley (16:24) I'm just thinking is there somebody out there who may say I've never shot a gun in my life? don't know if but I want to Jacob Paulsen (16:29) taste of Sure, think probably if you called me and said hey I think I'm gonna come to the Guardian Conference but I've shot a gun before, I'd like here's what we're gonna do right on day one on Friday morning we're gonna put you one-on-one with one of the assistant instructors you're gonna get your own bay and we're gonna get you ironed out. Yeah. On day two you're gonna jump in the club. Yeah so that's what that would be my approach because you know Alex Ooley (16:44) shooting a little. Jacob Paulsen (16:50) who self-defense is is a a myriad of things right I didn't even mention we have a managing unknown context class, we pepper spray classes, so self-defense is a myriad of things, but we are conciliacare.com, so this is a conference that to be a little bit more hyper-focused on the shooting element. Alex Ooley (17:04) Yeah, makes sense. ⁓ So we mentioned the website. ⁓ There's a bunch of information about the conference, the trainers, the course offerings, what people need to bring. What else do think people need to know about the conference? It's a few days, what sorts of accommodations are available, how do people get there, those sorts of things. Jacob Paulsen (17:24) So you travel you got to figure out we have plenty of people who fly into Will Rogers Airport there in Oklahoma City Plenty of people are driving as well in terms of accommodations We I mean some people do this budget style. We had a guy show up two years ago He flew in he took an uber from the airport, and then he put up a tent They're right there at the gun range. There's there's there's space for that. Okay. He took it You know there's showers on on site. He's you know got up each morning showered right there at the gun range You know slept in his tent each night and then he took an Uber back to the airport and that was that. So that's an option. Many people put up a tent and sleep right there on the gun range. They have over 100 RV sites at that particular facility. So you want to bring your fifth wheel or your trailer or your RV, no problem, you have 10 bucks a night. You can camp out right there on the range. have RV hookups, water and power. if not, within 15 minutes, you have a Hampton, a Holiday Inn, a Fairfield and a La Quinta. And we have group rates at those hotels. So you can get that info on the website. most people are probably staying at one of those hotels. Alex Ooley (18:30) Okay, fantastic. Well, I think we covered most of the information we need to cover about the conference. Is there anything we haven't discussed that you think we need to cover? Jacob Paulsen (18:39) I would encourage you two things. One is just come. Just believe me, I guess. If you're on the fence, just take a leap of faith. and come because it's a family event, not a family event like bring your children and you could I suppose, but a family event that you're gonna show up and you're gonna feel like family. Like we take all our meals together, breakfast, I mean you don't have to, you can leave if you want or can show up, eat breakfast at hotel, but we're serving breakfast, lunch and dinner at this range each day. We want people to be together, it's a unifying event where it's about community as much as it is about skill and passion. So take a leap of faith and come and be part of the family. So that's my first thought, just do it. And secondly, I would encourage you to bring somebody. showing up and meeting a bunch of new, awesome people is a great idea, there's a lot of value to that. ⁓ Bring somebody with you. Come as a pair. Whether it's a buddy or a spouse or whatever it is. And that's going to completely increase your ROI. It really will. And take some of the classes together but also split up sometimes like, hey, you go to this, I'm going do that. And we find that people who come with somebody, they have a much better experience just in terms of what they leave with because they can compare notes. You get to go back to the hotel at night and tell me about the class you took. Oh, that's crazy. Yeah, this is what I heard. You're taking notes, you're sharing notes. And so I think there's something to be said about that. Common plan to make friends but bring it Alex Ooley (20:03) I love that advice because that's been my experience as well. Classes that I've taken by myself have been good but I don't get nearly as much out of it as I do when I go with someone. Jacob Paulsen (20:12) Yeah, it's because the conversations that happen afterwards, the debrief, the effective social debrief, where you're talking about what happened. Alex Ooley (20:19) Yeah, yeah, fantastic. What's the cost for the conference? Jacob Paulsen (20:24) Yep, the standard price, which I don't know that many people actually pay the standard price, is 800 bucks. So that's the most you could pay. But we do early bird, and right now early bird pricing is live. don't know when this recording this podcast will go live, so I apologize if you're listening to this right now and you go and check and it's gone. But early bird pricing is in effect, so that saves you little bit of money. We also do a super early bird, so it's too late for that this year, but during the event, you can buy tickets for the following year. at a super early bird price, that's very discounted. And there's a couple other places to get discount, there's a couple of organizations we provide coupon codes into. But the biggest, the biggest true discount is being a member of Nation. So that's our subscription membership product at ConsilCarrie.com. So if you're a member of Guardian Nation, you get a $150 discount on the ticket to Guardian Conference. So if you were really on top of this, you know, you're paying during super early bird and you're a Guardian Nation member, I might lose money on you, frankly. is an unbelievable value for what you're Alex Ooley (21:24) Well, even at $800 it's a great value. Jacob Paulsen (21:27) It's an amazing value. Just think about how much I'm covering the food, like your food costs alone, These trainers who show up and teach here, to get a day with any of them would probably normally cost you $300 to $500. So three days, this is a significant value to get access to this level of Alex Ooley (21:45) Yeah, three day class at a high quality instructor. Sometimes 2 grand, 1500 bucks. Jacob Paulsen (21:54) Easily and you're getting access to kinds of things that you may not be like you would normally not be able to get at all like we do lowlight Yeah, it's pretty hard to find a lowlight class for some people. We're doing a vehicle defense thing like does your local range offer that like probably not. the of thing you'd have travel for. So there's just a lot of these kinds of things that are hard to get. And so being able go to one place and get it all or to be able to your schedule doing all these different types of things, that's a good idea. Alex Ooley (22:20) opportunity and even if you can get the vehicle or the low light somewhere locally is it quality? Jacob Paulsen (22:25) It's probably not Apache Solutions doing it. These are four most experts on these topics. yeah, you're not wrong. And I don't mean to diminish the value of any local instructor anywhere who's putting their heart and soul into providing a good class. Because our community is full of amazing instructors, and that's a fact. Alex Ooley (22:46) But these are instructors who have been vetted by... Jacob Paulsen (22:49) Bingo! That's the thing, right? The local guy you take to class from might be amazing or he might not be that good, but the average consumer probably doesn't know the difference. Alex Ooley (22:58) Right, yep. That was something I struggled with when I started getting into the firearms training world. I struggled to even differentiate between who was a good or bad instructor. How would you know? I some classes with some bad instructors. ⁓ But you just sort of learn as you do it. That's right. If I had an opportunity to start with the Guardian Conference, somebody else had done that triage for me. Jacob Paulsen (23:06) structure. Yeah, I've got some rough ones. Yeah, you're going get exposed to some better people. Alex Ooley (23:23) Yeah, well we'll link to the to the conference in the show notes will link to concealed carry.com mount man medical Anything else you'd like me to link to I'll certainly include in the show notes any closing thoughts before we close up podcast Jacob Paulsen (23:36) I guess my thought would be that if you're listening to this and you're like, you know what, that sounds interesting, but I just don't know. If you're on the fence and you're just not there yet, then the answer is, you probably, if this is a big ask, and it could be, if you give me $800 plus cost of animal plus travel plus lodging, this is an easy thing you could probably spend $2,000 on if you go by yourself. If go with another person, you get to share gas, and you get to share hotel rooms. So anyway, just little tip in there. But if that sounds like a lot, I get it. just go take a local class. I'd rather you just said, you know what, what I can do is I can commit to the defensive pistol 101 at Bob's Gun Club down the road. Go do that. Some training is definitely better than no training. The more important thing here than going to Jacob's Cool event is that you get into a cycle and a habit and a level of discipline of taking training on some regular, frequent basis. Not as a one-off. But you say you know what it's just gonna be part of my life now that once a year I'm gonna take a class Whatever it is. Yeah, so that's the real message here when we talk about this stuff like I appreciate the opportunity to pitch my little event But the real message here is do you have you built a lifestyle where you have some frequent consistent training expectation of yourself? Alex Ooley (24:48) Yeah, yeah, fantastic. Well, I love the idea of the Guardian Conference. like, I love the work that you're doing with ConcealedCarry.com. Like we said when we started the conversation, you focus on sort of the holistic, you know, armed defense and not the equipment, not the gun so much, but all the other components, the mental, the training, the, you know, all those aspects. So I love the idea, encourage people to check it out and thanks for... coming on the show to talk about the opportunity that people have in Oklahoma City, September. Jacob Paulsen (25:19) 18 19 and 20. Okay. Thank you. I'm honored to be here Alex Ooley (25:23) Yeah, alright, well thanks again. Appreciate it, Alex. Yep, thank you. Thanks everybody for tuning in. As always, you can find the podcast on YouTube, Rumble, Facebook, and X, and also on all the most popular podcasts streaming platforms. Until next time, remember, you are the Forge of Freedom.